Haunting history

By Ellie Oleson CORRESPONDENT

Thursday

Mar 3, 2011 at 12:01 AM

There was a chill in the air at the historic old house at 326 Main St., where strange noises and banging sounds could be heard, lights switched on and off for no apparent reason, vases dropped from tables, and doors and windows slammed closed with no one near.

The basement seemed to harbor eerie secrets, and a small upstairs passageway so frightened one local woman that she refused to enter it.

Instead, she called “Ghost Hunters,” who not only entered the darkest corners of the house, but spent two nights filming there. The program will air March 9 on the SyFy channel.

Jennifer L. Hubbell, 25, of East Brookfield, said the house was owned by her grandparents, Raymond and Mary C. Voas, while she was growing up. In 2008, Ms. Hubbell’s parents, David M. and Deanne J. Voas, bought the house.

“I cried. I really didn’t want them to buy it. I always thought the house was creepy. There was one spot we weren’t even allowed in — a small, top-floor closet that leads to a hallway and a little room with a staircase to a bedroom downstairs. It was so creepy! But once my parents moved in, I felt comfortable there. Strange things still happen, but I no longer think they are scary, just kind of strange,” Ms. Hubbell said.

Looking for answers, she talked to a beloved family friend, Renee Martinelli, who came for a visit and said she heard a little boy named “Robbie” in the basement and “Harold came and went,” Ms. Hubbell said.

“Renee introduced me to the idea of calling ‘Ghost Hunters.’ She believed me about our house and felt her own house was haunted.”

Ms. Martinelli died in 2009, shortly after moving to Rhode Island. She was 37 years old.

Ms. Hubbell said Ms. Martinelli had introduced her to The Atlantic Paranormal Society, known as TAPS, which is headed by paranormal researchers Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, a pair of plumbers who lead the investigations featured on “Ghost Hunters.”

“I watch ‘Ghost Hunters’ all the time. I went on the TAPS website and wrote them, but I never dreamed they’d call me. It’s been great for me and my parents. Maybe now my friends won’t think I’m so crazy,” Ms. Hubbell said.

The “Ghost Hunters” team spoke with the family, then put them up in an Auburn hotel for two nights in November, during which the team stayed in the house overnight, investigating and filming. The results are being kept under wraps until the show airs.

“They didn’t just look for ghosts, they did back history. They really try to prove you wrong before proving you right,” Ms. Hubbell said.

Homeowner Mrs. Voas seemed somewhat skeptical, but open to the idea that her house might be haunted.

Jean M. O’Reilly, chairman of the Oxford Historical Commission, while declining to discuss ghosts, said the house was an older home that does have an interesting history.

Town assessors’ records show that the property was owned by Asa Butler prior to 1850, when he sold it to Orrin Chaffee.

Ms. Hubbell said one former resident of the house told her that there was once a tunnel under the house, “for moving prisoners from place to place.”

No proof of a tunnel has been found, but Mrs. O’Reilly located records in George F. Daniels’ “History of Oxford,” that showed Mr. Chaffee was deputy sheriff from 1855 to 1875, and served as town constable for multiple terms between 1857 and 1886.

In addition, Mrs. O’Reilly said, “I just recently learned that the town jail was upstairs in the north side of that house. Eventually, the jail went from that building across the street, downstairs in Memorial Hall.”

She said a State Police barracks was located on land nearby in the mid-20th century.

Assessor’s records show that the owner of 326 Main St. after Orrin Chaffee was John Wetherell; then Frank Chaffee purchased the property for $1 in 1911 from Ella Turner. The Chaffee executors, including Henry Kirchner, granted the property to Mr. Kirchner in 1922. One year later, he sold the house to Idella Grosvenor, who kept the house until 1946.

Mrs. O’Reilly said the Grosvenors were owners of Grosvenor Shoe Co., which was located just behind the house off Main Street. She said a friend remembers the Grosvenors opening the house to visitors “because it was such an unusual house. She saw the iron bars and all upstairs, where the jail had been.”

In 1946, Mrs. Grosvenor sold the house to Herbert B. and Ethel I. Langer, who, later that same year, sold it to Donald F. and Gerald E. Boyd and to Herbert and Mila Low. The Lows’ trustees sold the house to Raymond and Mary Voas in 1969, and, finally, in 2008, David and Deanne Voas bought the house.

Whether any of these previous owners, prisoners or their families or friends hung around as ghosts to this day is debatable.

Mrs. O’Reilly said the state Historic Commission did a survey of Oxford in 1984 and determined that the “unusual house may have been built by Aaron Taylor circa 1844.”

There are also records at the Registry of Deeds going back to the 18th century, according to Ms. Hubbell.

As for ghosts named “Robbie” and “Harold,” the family could find no mention of either name in old records, until one day last month, long after “Ghost Hunters” finished filming. Mrs. Voas said her husband took down a ceiling tile and found an old letter.

The yellowed pages are in an envelope, addressed to “Robert Thompson, 326 Main St. Oxford,” mailed from “PO Box 155” in Boston and stamped with the original stamp from Feb. 23, 1934. In the letter to Robbie, his Aunt Alice said she hopes “Harold doesn’t have to have his lower teeth out.”

“That explains Robbie and Harold,” Ms. Hubbell said.

During renovations during the past few months, the family has also found old clay marbles; more than a dozen antique beads; an old shoe; several large pennies, one dated 1812; an 1835 25-cent piece; and a French coin from 1854 featuring the likeness of “Napolean III The Emperor.”

They also found a large rock with an iron hook embedded in it, a beehive oven, a hand-hewn board carved with “PS 88 XII,” and a 9-inch, solid lead stencil, stamped from “10 No. Market Boston,” with the word “Lafayette” in 1-inch, cut-out letters.

“The stencil was found in the north wing, which we believe predates the 1844 part of the house,” Mrs. Voas said.

Ms. Hubbell said she is interested to learn what “Ghost Hunters” found, but would not be disappointed if the team said the house has no spirits.

“This has been so much fun. It’s brought our family closer together. This whole thing has been a wonderful experience, even if they say our house isn’t haunted. It’s OK. I know it is.”

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